


A Special Day

by New_day



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Conversations, Domestic, Fluff, Hannibal Lecter Loves Will Graham, M/M, Murder Husbands, Post-Episode: s03e13 The Wrath of the Lamb, Presents, Will Graham Loves Hannibal Lecter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-04 20:20:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17904959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/New_day/pseuds/New_day
Summary: Will and Hannibal celebrate a special occasion by exchanging presents and having a conversation.





	A Special Day

Sometimes he still wonders how he ended up here.

With him.

Sometimes he wonders if this is real. Or if it's just a dream and he is going to wake up some day, in his hospital bed, severely injured after pushing both of them off the cliff. With Molly sitting at his bedside and Hannibal dead.

He really hopes this day will never come. He wouldn't know what to do without him.

***

Sometimes he thinks of Molly and Walter. Thinking of their time together seems strange now, not like a memory, more like thinking about a life lived by someone else. It was a good life, peaceful, quiet, content. Almost happy.

It was nothing like the life he has now.

***

Sometimes he wakes up in the morning and can't believe that Hannibal is lying next to him. Looking soft and harmless in his sleep, not at all like the predator, the monster he really is.

At times like this, he often finds himself overcome by a feeling of tenderness for this strange man and he reaches out and gives in to the urge to stroke Hannibal's cheek and his hair.

Hannibal always loved to touch him, but Will only started on the cliff, when he reach out for him and Hannibal took his hand. When Will hugged him, crawled into his arms. When he pushed them both off the cliff. That was when he allowed himself for the first time to touch Hannibal.

And he has never stopped since.

Their touches are sometimes rough and violent, sometimes soft and tender, and they both can't keep their hands off each other. It is as if they have to assure both themselves and each other that the other one is really there. That they survived and are together, finally.

***

Today is a special day. Will remembers immediately when he wakes up, lying next to Hannibal who is still asleep.

It has been a year today since they killed Dolarhyde. A year since the end of their old lives and the beginning of something new.

When Will pushed them off the cliff, he expected them to die. Mostly. But there was a part of him that hoped they would survive. If he had wanted to make sure that they died, they would have. He could have stabbed or shot them, first Hannibal, then himself. Will knows Hannibal would have let him.

But Will didn't, because he couldn't. He could never kill Hannibal, as much as he tried to. All he could do was leave it to fate and circumstance -or, like Hannibal probably would have said, god- if they should live or die.

And they didn't die. Even though sometimes Will feels as if he did. Sometimes he imagines his body lying at the bottom of the ocean, decomposing, becoming one with the sea. Because the man he was died when he killed the dragon with Hannibal. This is why his life with Molly seems so strange to him now, as if it was lived by someone else. Because it was.

Will Graham is dead.

Long live Will Graham.

***

Finally, Hannibal opens his eyes, looking at Will sleepily, smiling. “Good morning, Will.”

Will leans his face towards Hannibal's and kisses him softly. “Good morning, Hannibal. Happy anniversary.”

This makes Hannibal chuckle. “You remembered.”

“Of course I remembered. How could I forget the day that changed my life forever?” 

The day he died and was reborn to darkness.

Hannibal's eyes are on Will, scrutinizing him intently, studying Will's expression. “Do you sometimes find yourself regretting these changes, Will?”

Will shakes his head. “No. And if I did, that would be absurd, like regretting to grow up or to get old. Or to die. These changes had to happen and were initiated long ago. Killing the dragon was just the final step of my becoming. And everything that happened on that day was of my own volition.”

“It was indeed, Will,” Hannibal replies, beaming with pride. “Everything that occurred was your design, and I chose to comply. It is true what I told you all those years ago. I could have never predicted what would become of you, all I could do was assist your becoming and support and encourage you.”

Support and encourage...a few years ago, Will would have laughed at that, would have told Hannibal what a hypocrite he was, because everything Hannibal had ever cared about was himself. Will would have said that Hannibal was obsessed with him, that he couldn't let him go. That he would do anything to alienate Will from others, to make him feel like Hannibal was the only one he could come to, the only one who understood him. That's what Alana would say as well, or Jack, and they wouldn't be entirely wrong but...Will knows there's more to it than that.

Hannibal was the first one who saw. 

He was the first one who saw the monster inside Will, because it resembled Hannibal's own. A monster which had always been there, long before Will met Hannibal, as long as Will could remember. Will had trapped it, put it in a cage, because he thought it was the right thing to do. Hannibal was the one who made him question this. He was the one who wanted him to free the beast, to open its cage. But it was Will who finally opened the door and freed it. 

Now the monster is free to roam, and by unleashing it, Will has freed himself. It became a part of him, sometimes Will doesn't know where he begins and the beast ends, like he sometimes doesn't know where he begins and Hannibal ends.

“I've got a present for you,” Will says. He takes his tablet, which is placed on the nightstand, and hands it to Hannibal, waiting for his reaction expectantly.

“Two plane tickets to Baltimore?” Hannibal frowns, confused. “I suppose you are not planning a belated honeymoon, in Baltimore of all places, Will?”

Will chuckles. “Well...in a way. I bought them yesterday, for the special occasion of our anniversary, because it seemed appropriate. I think there's someone we should pay a visit. And even though it's not exactly a honeymoon, 'belated' is indeed the right word. He should have died years ago, and now he will finally meet his fate.”

“You mean...you really want to kill Jack?” Hannibal knows immediately who Will is talking about, and Will can tell that he is delighted. Of course he is.

“Yes. Like I said, he should have died years ago. And you know he will never leave us alone. He almost caught us twice already. He is obsessed with catching you, or both of us, now that he knows that we are together. He might succeed the next time, and I didn't survive the fall off the bluff to be confined to a prison cell for the rest of my life. And never see you again.”

“And you are indeed sure, Will, that you are prepared to go through with it this time?”

“Yes,” Will replies without hesitation. “I know where my loyalties lie. I've known for a long time.”

And even though this is true, Will knows it won't be easy. It won't be their first kill after the fall, but it will be different. No random stranger, killed because he had recognized and was stupid enough to blackmail them, but...Jack. Jack, who Will used to consider a friend. But he doesn't now, not anymore. And he knows that he has to do it, that he has to sever this last tie to complete his becoming.

“I've got a present for you, too,” Hannibal says to Will's surprise. He hands Will his phone, and Will stares at it perplexedly. 

“What...what is this, Hannibal?”

Hannibal smiles. “I think this is quite obvious, Will. It's a picture of a dog. Our dog. We can get her from the dog shelter tomorrow.”

Will stares at the picture. “You...got me a dog? From the dog shelter? But...you hate dogs.”

“No, I don't hate dogs, Will. I merely dislike dog hair, noise, dirty paws and odious smell in my house, which I explained to you already.”

“Yes, exactly, you did, and you said that because of this, it was impossible for us to have a dog. What made you change your mind?”

“I know how fond you are of dogs, Will, and I want you to be happy,” Hannibal says simply.

Will knows why Hannibal got him a dog.

Because he wants to give him something else to love beside Hannibal, something warm, soft and easy, not as complicated as the love they share.

Something that will show Will that Hannibal cares for him, something that will make Will want to stay.

Something that Will can love and that will love him back, without posing a threat to Hannibal and their relationship.

And because Hannibal knows that Will is fond of dogs and wants to make him happy.

It has always been like that with Hannibal and it always will be. His actions will always be motivated by manipulation, self-centeredness – and by genuine care and concern. Hannibal is neither fully a monster, nor is he fully human.

He is something entirely other, just like Will is, in his own way.

Will looks at the picture again. “Why did you choose her? I would have thought that if you got me a dog, it would be a pedigree, a great Dane perhaps or a German shepherd, not a mutt.”

Hannibal smiles again. “She reminded me of you when we first met.”

Will raises his eyebrows. “She did? May I ask in what way?”

“Well, the animal attendant said that she should be kept alone because she doesn't like socializing with other dogs. When I approached her, she growled and tried to bite me. But fortunately, I had some homemade sausage with me, which I fed her. She was very fond of the sausage, started to wag her tail and even let me pet her.”

Will laughs at that, an open, genuine laughter, like all those years ago, when Hannibal brought him breakfast and fed him sausage, and Will had now idea yet what he was eating and who this man really was.

“She will like it here with us,” he says. “Thank you.”

He pulls the blanket off and looks at Hannibal, who is naked, like Will himself. Hannibal's body is covered in scars and his taste for good food is starting to show in the softness of his belly, but he is beautiful to Will. Will reaches out to touch him.

“Happy anniversary, Hannibal,” he says again.


End file.
